Choices
by Kaiorven
Summary: Three times China fell, and one in which it did not.


Looked through some older stuff on my laptop and found this.

Disclaimer: Mulan is not mine, unfortunately. She is, however, undeniably awesome.

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"A single grain of rice may be enough to tip the scales. One man may be the difference between victory and defeat."

I.

In one universe, Mulan chose not to enlist in the army at all.

In several months, they received a single notice. Her father had died under General Li with honour. They never found the body, though by now it didn't matter. The only forces left were under the rule of Captain Li Shang, though they never saw battle, as the forces were weak and untrained without the determination and inspiration of "Ping". They were determined unfit for duty by Chi Fu of the Emperor's Consul, and this time, the thin advisor was completely right. The soldiers were still nothing but a bunch of conscripts, and even had Mushu been there to issue the false orders, most would have deserted at the prospect of real combat.

The Huns had taken over much of the Middle Kingdom of China already, and their province would be the next to fall. Her mother, Fa Li, died a grieving widow. Her grandmother followed soon after.

Mulan attempted to fend off the Huns, but armed with nothing more than a dog and a teapot, she died, unmarried, the last descendant of the Fa family, and a permanent dishonour to their family name.

China had never even stood a chance.

II.

In the second universe, Mulan made it to the training camp, and began her basic training as a soldier. Weak compared to her surrounding trainees, discouraged by Li Shang, and utterly disillusioned, she quit the army and made it home, ashamed.

Her family, to her surprise, were so relieved that she made it back that they forgave her instantly.

Despite this, the attempts to marry her continued, as they sent her to matchmaker after matchmaker, determined to get her wed before she ran off on another "harebrained" scheme again.

The Hun army swept through China once again, sweeping aside the Imperial military with ease. Once again, they reached her province, and her father and grandmother died when their province was attacked.

Mulan and her mother escaped, however. They made it to the capital, where Shang's army had been posted, having not been given the fake orders to the front provided by Mushu. Though their forces were larger, having not been decimated during the avalanche that wiped out most of the Huns, they were still weak, and tiny compared to the huge Hun Army.

Shang never made it in time to even attempt to save the emperor, as he rallied his semi-trained soldiers into battle.

Mulan and her mother were captured, maimed and killed. They fared better than the Emperor's daughters, whom were beaten and raped when the Huns broke into the palace.

China was forever gone.

III.

In the third universe, Mulan had left her family, and persevered despite her orders during the training. She retrieve the arrow and thus had won the respect of her comrades, whom, inspired by her valiant efforts, trained harder, pushing themselves to the limit in their training. Mulan even managed to wipe out much of the Hun Army at the pass.

However, in this universe, Mulan was discovered to be a woman. And in this universe, Shang brought up his sword, and instead of leaving Mulan to the elements, killed her where she stood.

It was supposed to be a mercy kill, for a daughter that had dishonoured her family, and the Imperial Army. If he were being merciless, he would have sent her back to her province and killed her in front of her family.

At least, Shang tried to tell himself that. He had spared her from complete shame, or exposure in the passes. He was being merciful. So why was his head, his heart, and his gut all screaming at him, telling him he had made a huge mistake? Why was the pit of guilt nibbling away at his stomach?

Nevertheless, when he and his army rode to the Capital as heroes, the morale of his soldiers had broken completely, without even the lie of Mulan's possibility of survival to ease their own guilt after the battle.

When the remnants of the Huns arrived, they fought bravely and valiantly, though they were still overpowered and undermatched against the vicious, brutal, remaining Huns, whom had weathered an avalanche and survived.

Shang Li fought against Shan Yu. He was their last hope for the emperor, and he fought well. However, without Mulan to distract Shan Yu, all of his anger was brought to brunt against Shang, who inevitably fell against the Leader of the Huns. He died with honour, in service to China, never straying from his duty.

The emperor was eventually beheaded in front of the crowd, with no one able to save him.

China had fallen, in spite of all they had been through.

IV.

In this universe, Shang spared Mulan, despite the dishonour she had caused, the reminder of her saving him earlier was enough to leave him unable to deal the final blow.

She made it back to the Capital, and, using her resourcefulness, managed to defeat the Huns once and for all, by dressing her fellow soldiers as concubines, distracting Shan Yu from killing Shang, and killing him in a spray of fireworks.

She brought honour as a soldier to her family, and married Shang, the now prestigious general that could have, would have killed her in another life. She had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, not once, but again and again, steering fate from its seemingly inevitable path towards failure, into a route that hard fought and hard earned, had succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

It was not just the presence of Mulan that had tipped the scales, but the choices she had made. It wasn't a man that had made the difference between victory and defeat, but an ashamed and desperate girl whom was deemed unweddable by the most esteemed matchmaker in the province.

In the canon universe, China was victorious, and no one had truly realised how close they had come to defeat, and that, in and of itself, was the mark of a true and astounding victory.


End file.
